Packers will celebrate their 100 seasons

GREEN BAY – The team that was perpetually on its deathbed is celebrating 100 years of football.

The Green Bay Packers on Monday announced some of the elements of a celebration of a century on the gridiron, which culminates with its 100th birthday on Aug. 11, 2019.

“I believe this is the greatest story in sports. We are unique,” said team historian Cliff Christl. “Nobody has a story like ours.”

Fans had to rescue the Packers from financial doom multiple times over the decades, and at one point the NFL wanted to make it a traveling-only team because it drew so well on the road and so poorly at home. The road attraction remains, but today the Packers sell out every home game and have a season ticket waiting list of 133,000.

Its past now the stuff of legends and its present secure, the team revealed four tent-pole events around which it will build 16 months of celebration, including a traveling exhibit, a four-day festival in July, a concert in September and release of a 10-part documentary and history book in 2019.

“We’ve been working on this five years,” said Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy. “You only turn 100 once.”

Murphy expects the documentary and book will have lasting impact.

“Cliff ’s book will be great,” he said of the “100 Seasons” book to be published in 2019. “He knows more Packers history than anyone.”

The celebration began Monday, primarily with the appearance of new 100 Seasons-branded merchandise in the Packers Pro Shop. The first tent-pole event will kick off in June with a traveling interactive exhibit called Lambeau Field Live. The exhibit will make stops at Summerfest in Milwaukee, the Northern Wisconsin State Fair in Chippewa Falls, EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, the Wisconsin State Fair in West Allis, Wis., and Taste of Madison.

Lambeau Field Live will include Play 60 activities, alumni encounters, a satellite Packers Pro Shop and Packers Hall of Fame, a Lambeau Leap wall and a one-of-a-kind virtual reality display.

That will be followed by a Packers Experience festival at Lambeau Field from July 26-29, coinciding with the annual shareholders meeting and the opening of training camp. The free festival will include live music, a replica team locker room, USA Football kids’ clinic, Packers alumni Q&A, photo stations and more.

ESPN will broadcast live from the Packers Experience on July 26-27, said Gabrielle Valdez Dow, vice president of marketing and fan engagement.